More about the Pfizer WhistleBlower Case - Zoloft for Failed Cheerleaders and Viagra for Women

Depressed cheer leaders, that one sounds like right out of the OC. Look at the one comment below, “targeted doctors would see 2 or 3 different Pfizer reps a day”, that is a lot, and they are out there, I see them all over and maybe a bit of duplicated effort, but they all seem to bring lunch! Well I guess maybe the Pfizer rocket was an omen of some sort. Let’s not forget some of the good things though about the free drugs for those who have lost their jobs.

Pfizer to Offer Free Drugs for Up to a Year for those who have lost their job

Back to the other side of the coin when it came to expenses, the return of $10 for every $1 spent is interesting. I worked in sales for many years for Fortune 500 companies and for what I did, those are low numbers, as I was in logistics. The numbers are supplied by pharmacy benefit companies so the sales representatives can see who is prescribing, the same information that we can use for a PHR. Use of such information has been in the news a lot lately as to who can have access and how some companies sell it too. You can read more about that end of it here. BD

Former Pfizer sales rep Blair Collins‘ whistleblower lawsuit contains a detailed guide to how some of Pfizer’s reps allegedly promoted their drugs. Among the tactics they allegedly used were recommending the antidepressant Zoloft for girls who failed to make the cheerleading squad; and staging talks in which doctors recommended prescribing Viagra for women who had difficulty reaching orgasm.

Blair begins his suit — which was settled by Pfizer as part of the $2.3 billion Bextra deal with the Department of Justice — by describing the budgets that Pfizer’s reps and marketing staff had at their disposal on an annual basis. The suit gives these numbers

Pfizer expected a $10 return on every $1 it spent on its marketing, Collins alleges, and targeted doctors would see two or three different Pfizer reps every day.